[lochness]

I found this at http://www.aquatics-warehouse.co.uk/
and thought it would be a great introduction as many of these questions are asked in the beginner's section.

[NOTE: Although we are appreciative of the original author's expertise, this information has been modified and will continue to be altered at the discretion of this thread's poster to update and correct the *Golden Rules* of Fishkeeping as we deem appropriate.]
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In a new tank the good beneficial bacteria which is responsible for the biological filtering of fish daily waste takes about 4 weeks to mature. This can be sped up by adding a maturing agent to your tank.

When it comes to stocking a new tank with fish you should only put in a few fish to start off with and then build the stocks up gradually over the next month or two. This is to let the tank mature slowly and to stop the nitrites going very high too soon.

When it comes to putting new gravel, rocks or bogwood into the aquarium make sure that you give them a good washing first of all. To wash gravel put a small quantity of it into a clean bucket and then fill this with cold water. You should now swill the gravel around releasing the dirt from the gravel into the water. This dirty water should be poured away and then swill the gravel again in the same way until the water is clear. Rocks need to be soaked in hot or preferably boiling water for about an hour. To clean bogwood you should soak it in a bucket of boiling water over night, and for several nights afterwords. This will make the water brown in colour as it removes the stain from the bogwood. It should be soaked in fresh clean boiling water until the water is clear or at least less brown.

Never use a bucket that has had chemicals like bleach, soap etc. in it as this will harm your fish. It is best to buy a new bucket and use it just for the fish tank, maybe even write on it "Fish tank" to avoid any accidental usage.

Never put shells, corals or anything off the beach into your coldwater or tropical aquarium as this will cause problems in the future.

Once a week you should do a 20%-30% water change, this stops the potential build up of fish waste from getting too high. If your tank is *overstocked*, then a larger water change weekly may be necessary. Some change the water more often and others do it every 2 weeks - weekly is good to maintain some form of stability and yet keep the ammonia to 0 as much as possible - of course every tank is different so to find out what's best for yours, test your water regularly a couple of hours after a water change and gage the numbers -- and then alter your water changing regime accordingly. When replacing this water you need to treat it before putting it back into your tank with a water conditioner as these remove the chlorine and the bad metal ions from the water. Remember to get the temperature of the water you are using to roughly the same as the tank.

The ideal tank temperature for tropical fish is 75 - 82 F ( 24 - 28 C)

If you should have to strip the tank fully then always try and keep some of the mature substrate in the same aquarium water. This will give it a good start when setting it back up again and remember to unplug the heater/stat for 5 minutes to let it cool down before you remove the water.

You should feed your fish sparingly twice a day, if any of the flake food sinks to the bottom then you have over fed and this can lead to cloudy tanks and poor water quality. Never crush the food as even a neon can eat a flake as its like tissue paper and folds up in its mouth. By crushing the flake it makes it very bitty and this tends to make it sink almost straight away again clouding the water after a while. If your tank is less than a month old then you should only feed once a day until it matures, which takes a month.

If your water goes cloudy then it is nearly always due to over feeding, so carry out a quarter water change and then add a product to help clear the water and from then on cut down on the food as overfeeding is the most common problem in this hobby.

Should you suffer from algae in your tank then this can be cured by cutting down the number of hours that you have your light on and also by adding an algae control product.

To grow plants successfully they need about 8 - 12 hours a day of light. Its a case of getting a happy balance where your plants grow well and the algae doesn't ! If the plants still are not growing as well as you would like them then it might be time for a new light tube as after 12 - 18 months the strength of the light given off by the tube decreases. Adding a reflector to the light doubles the brightness and you will see a tremendous difference. You might want to replace your light with a brighter one to help with plant growth.

You should be testing the water from your tank every week for best results as the water in a fishes life is the most important thing (other than the temperature in a tropical tank). You should be testing for a few things: Ph, Nitrites, Ammonia and Nitrates. These important water qualities keep the fish in tip top health and prevent the fish being stressed which would normally lead to poor health.



Here's a little about the Ph scale which is measured from 1 - 14.


1 <-------ACID-------> 6.9
7.0 (Neutral)
7.1 <-------ALKALINE-------> 14

Check your fish's profiles to determine what Ph is ideal for the species.

When cleaning internal or external filters it's best to use water from the tank to wash out the media as using hot water or even cold tap water (full of chlorine) can kill the good beneficial bacteria which is responsible for keeping your tank biologically clean.

When you have purchased your fish you need to introduce them into your tank slowly and carefully. This is best done by utilizing a bucket whose purpose is for aquarium use only. Fill this bucket halfway with aquarium water (using a small airstone and submersible heater in the bucket would be wise as well to minimise the stress on the new fish when it is introduced to the tank). You may float the bag, unopened, for 10 minutes in the bucket as this allows the temperature of the water in the bag to equalize to the temperature in the tank. Then dip a little water from your bucket into the bag a little bit at a time for about an hour so that the new fish can best acclimitise. When you are ready, feed the fish in your tank as you normally would. Then, using a plastic container similar to that in use at pet stores (or a small breeder container) and slowly capture your fish and gently place it into your tank. Care should be taken with the entire bag of a new purchase - outside, inside (water), the fish itself and the established aquarium and its inhabitants. The true origin and travails of the newly purchased fish is unknown, so it wouldn't be wise to subject an environment in which is controlled and kept as well-maintained as possible to the unknown. There are *Golden Rules* in the sense that they have been tested and tried and shown to be the optimal methods - mostly taken from the experiences of Seasoned Hobbyists that suffered adverse reactions and results and shared them in the hopes that another Hobbyist doesn't have to endure the same trials and tribulations and heartache. These are not hard and fast rules so you may choose to not adhere to them, and that's all well and fine - but if a problem arises which could have been avoided, there may be losses of time, money and sadly, the loss of life of your fish.

You should always check the forums and other fish resources when choosing fish to put in your tank to see if they are compatible with what you have in your tank already and for the estimated size the fish will be once it matures.